Child Of The Void
by The Final Shadow
Summary: Before entertaining the idea of destroying all that was, all that ever could be. Rassilon had a much darker idea. This is the tale of the Child Of The Void.
1. ANNOUNCEMENT

**JUST TO INFORM ALL FANS, IF THERE ARE ANY, I HAVE BEGUN TO RE-WRITE THE CHILD OF THE VOID AND I ENCOURAGE ALL WHO HAVE ENJOYED THE STORY THUS FAR TO GO AND CHECK OUT THE NEW VERSION, IT IS BETTER WRITTEN AND, IN MY OPINION HAS A MUCH MORE SOLID STORY LINE.**


	2. Chapter 1

The last great Time War. A cataclysmic event that raged throughout time and space. Two races dedicated to destroying one another. The Daleks. A scientific evolution, spawned by the mad professor Davros on the war torn planet of Skaro. Creatures born of war and filled with hate. Creatures that stalk eternity, purging time and space of anything that would live and breath without the title 'Dalek'. Time Lords. A race of beings corrupt to the core of their society, claiming to fight in the name of peace and justice and protection of all things just. They fight in the name of Rassilon, able to regenerate their bodies and travel in time and space, fighting to protect the flow of time itself, even if that means to destroy it.

"What is the news of the final project?" Rassilon inquired, entering the dimly lit room and surveying the conglomeration of time lords before him, all donned in white lab coats, before his eyes settled on the table top in front of him. Rassilon clenched his fist, the aromoured gauntlet that was enclosing it crackling with power slightly. "Well?" he asked, his voice betraying his feeling of panic.

"It has worked" Said one of the time lords, stepping toward the table and placing a hand on the shoulder of the small baby boy that lay there, gently stroking and comforting the small sleeping child. "The child has been successfully bonded with Void energy" The scientist breathed out, gasping slightly as the child's eyes briefly flickered open. Revealing two dark eyeballs. They had no distinguishable pupils or colouring, just the deepest darkest black. The scientist allowed his breath to break free of his body when the child's eyes flickered, the dark swirls leaving its eyes and being replaced with normal, time lord eyes. Deep dark blue with flecks of gold and the slightest hint of black.

"How long until the Void child becomes of mature age?" Rassilon questioned, raising his eyebrow slightly.

The scientist shuffled awkwardly on his feet, taking a step back from the table.

"Approximately sixteen years, lord Rassilon" The scientist replied meekly.

The shock was immediately visible on Rassilons face. "The war will be over by the Canthrope," Rassilon said, addressing the scientist by his first name harshly. "With the Daleks more than likely winning" He continued, raising his gauntlet, "I should end the child right here" He said with a sneer, clenching his fingers.

The baby was enveloped in a red glow, it arched its back and let out a low moan that should never have been able to be produced by a child that young. The red glow intensified, the child's eyes opening with silent tears pouring from within.

"It wont die" Rassilon snarled, clenching his hand harder and seemingly stretching himself out to the small baby, pouring his own energy into it as well as just the gloves seemingly infinite powers of destruction.

A dark, inky blackness leaked from the child's eyes instead of tears now. Tendrils of the dark energy swirling around the child and slowly enveloping it in a cocoon of power. The scientists in the room had long since fled, leaving only the child and Rassilon in the room. Rassilon began to stagger backward, the power of the child seemingly repelling that of his own. Then it was gone.

It did not vanish in the normal way that one killed by the hand of Rassilon would. The child simply dissipated, a slight displacement of air creating a barely audible swish, accompanied by Rassilon himself lurching forward under the, now released, strain of pushing back against the void child.

"No one must know of this" Rassilon murmured to himself, straightening his clothes, turning on his heel and walking quickly from the room.

Ω


	3. Chapter 2

_**AN: THANK YOU FOR THOSE WHO HAVE REVIEWED, ALERTED AND FAVORITED THIS STORY THUS FAR, THE LAST EPISODE WAS MERELY A PROLOGUE AND THE INTEREST IT GENERATED WAS QUITE ASTOUNDING TO ME. i HOPE YOU ENJOY THE CHAPTER AND THAT IT CONTINUES TO ENTERTAIN YOU AS MUCH AS IT ENTERTAINED ME WHILST WRITING IT.**_

They say a lonely child is the worst kind of child. That a lonely child can not be happy and will always have a destiny of sadness ahead of them. To be fair, this was exactly how Daniel's life had turned out thus far. He had been in the orphanage for as long as he could remember, and nearing his sixteenth birthday, no-one had once offered to befriend him, and no one had offered to adopt him. Daniel was most definitely a lonely child.  
"It must be because I am so damn strange" Daniel muttered to himself, drawing his knees together and launching a stone across the lake he was sitting at. He late a sigh escape his body. He wouldn't cry, he was way past crying. It wasn't the first time Daniel had run away from the Orphanage, but, he figured that they wouldn't try to find him this time. They had pretty much told him that they last time he had walked away. The boy shook his head slightly and stood up. He was lean, wearing a tight fitting wight top that clung to his body like it was two sizes too small. On top of the shirt he wore a leather coat that came down to his waist, the only nice item of clothing that he had.  
"Well, I better find a place to hunker down for the night" Daniel said, once more to no-one in particular, kicking the dusty path and causing a small cloud of fine particles to spray up in front of him like a cloud. Daniel walked off, gasing into the stars, thinking, wondering about the great beyond. Surely there was more to the simple life he had grown accustomed to along the years, surely there was something in the universe once living. Daniel, however, once again settled in an alcove under a small bridge by his River. Lain to sleep by the lapping of the water and the horns of late night traffic of 1970's London.

Ω  
"The planet below is so primitive, master," Sniveled a small green creature, almost goblin like in its appearance.  
Behind him, lurking in the shadows, stood a large and tall figure, barely visible in the Earth light that shone through the port hole of their ship.  
"Yes Dretak, it is primitive," The figure said, sneering slightly as he did so. "However, they say this is where the Void Child lives, and it being his sixteenth year on the Earthen morning, his powers should begin to manifest" The creature laughed, a weird clicking sound apparent as he did so, almost as if the hidden creature had some form of mandibles on his face.  
"But this back water planet" Dretak began to protest.  
"Silence you Brogdanian fool" The shadowed figure snarled, "The Shadow is what destroyed our worlds, and we have come here to destroy it before it manifests." It continued, pausing slightly to let the information of their mission sink into the small alien before him. "Your brothers and sisters will be saved and well once more Dretak, just as we agreed."  
"Yes general Mal'krark," Dretak whimpered, not wanting to be on the end of one of the Generals beatings. "We shall approach the child's location" He said, hesitantly punching in coordinates on a holographic screen that had appeared out of a band on his wrist.

Ω

Daniel woke up to a sharp pain in his chest. The boys immediate thought was that he had been stabbed and was currently in the process of being mugged, but, as his reactions brought his hand to the pained area there was nothing at all. Tears lept out of the childs eyes, dissipating into a dark smoke. He let out a low moan, clutching at his chest tightly, feeling not only the pain intensifying but a strange tickling and pulling as if something was growing and spreading within him. The child arched his back on the stone floor, his back cracking in several places and the smoke like substance billowing out of his mouth and ears, surrounding his body in an inky blackness.  
"Whats...Happening...To...Me..." Daniel managed to groan out, his voice sounding almost Demonic and warped in its nature.  
The darkness swirled around his body faster, pulsing and stretching outward like a deep dark void of nothingness, swallowing all light and energy in its path. Then with one final scream, it was gone, and Daniel lay on the floor panting.  
"What the fuck," Daniel gasped out clutching his body making sure everything was okay.  
Then, slowly but steadily, Daniel felt something on the right side of his chest. A steady thumping, gradually speeding up and matching pace with a very similar pumping on the left side of his chest. Daniel looked down at himself in pure fear.  
"That's not possible" he said, a sob racking his body. Daniel had grown another heart, beating at the same pace and timbre as his original.  
"Mate are you okay" came a strangers voice from the darkness of the night.  
"Stay away from me" Daniel sobbed out to the mystery figure.  
"Mate I heard screaming, i live on the streets, same as you, are you okay?" The voice said, the owner coming closer.  
"I said stay away" Daniel almost growled, a dark energy filling him up like a wave.  
"Look mate i don't want any trouble, i just wanna help you" The voice came a final time, walking into Daniels vision. The man looked to be in his mid twenties, a dirty blonde set of hair, the same color across his face in an unshaven beard. His clothes were shabby and unwashed, the classic sign of a tramp.  
"Stay away" Daniel all but roared at the homeless man, a wave of energy rippling out of his body and wrapping itself around the man, curling its way up his body and into his eyes, nose and mouth. The man let out an unearthly scream, his body seeming to shimmer and shake before loosing its integrity all together. The mans body began to crumple in on itself, a sickening crunch and squelch and the man was no more than a dark black blob of matter on the floor. Daniel let out a final gasp of the black smoke before collapsing back on the ground.  
Ω

"Are you sure this is the right one" came a female voice, dragging Daniel out of his slumber.  
"Yes most definitely Jo, I can feel him in my head and he definitely had two hearts." Came another voice, this time most definitely male.  
"Where am I?" Daniel coughed out, his head pounding with a headache like he had never before had and the second heart still beating happily in his chest.  
"You are in UNIT HQ my young boy" The male voice said.  
"Whats a UNIT?" Daniel inquired, not having the strength to open his eyes yet.  
"Oh that doesn't quite matter now, what matters is whats happening to you," The male voice continued.  
"What is happening to me" Daniel butted in, opening his eyes slightly to reveal a glaring light so bright that he closed them again.  
"That is yet to be completely seen" The voice said, almost pondering, anxious to see what had happened to the person lying on the table.  
"I think i have two hearts" Daniel sobbed, his resolve finally breaking.  
"Yes that is quite possibly the case, I'm the Doctor by the way" The man said, pressing something cold to Daniels chest.  
"Doctor who?" Daniel asked, clutching at the straws of his sanity.  
"Oh just the Doctor" The Doctor said, sounding almost amused.  
Suddenly a huge crash sounded throughout the base, followed by a harsh rumbling of the ground, causing all manner of things to fall off of the Doctors operating table and smash along the floor.  
"What was that?" Jo asked, "is the base under attack?"  
"It would seem so Jo," The Doctor replied, "Probably in search of our young friend here in fact"  
"Attacked by who, and why would they search for me?" Daniel asked, forcing his eyes open, the room swimming into view.  
Before him stood the man and the woman that the voices belonged to. The Doctor and Jo. The Doctor seemed to be old, old but full of energy. He seemed to be full of power and when Daniel looked at him it was almost as if he could feel something in the back of his mind.  
"The Shadow will be released to us" came a large voice, reverberating over the room.  
"What's the Shadow?" Daniel asked, being promptly shushed by the Doctor and Jo.  
"Release him to us, or this world will burn" The voice continued.  
The Doctor gave Daniel a stern look before glancing over to Jo who shrugged slightly.  
"It would seem that you are the Shadow," The Doctor said, fixing his eyes to Daniels.  
"That's not possible" Daniel stated simply, "My name is Daniel, I'm a nobody, why would someone be looking for me."  
The Doctor studied the young child before him, able to realize that this young boy genuinely thought he was human and not a child of Gallifrey, more than a child of gallifrey. The Doctor could feel it, an ancient power coursing through the child's veins, some form of deep transient energy.  
"I'm nobody" Daniel repeated, sounding exasperated, his eyes looking pleadingly into the Doctors, hoping this mystery man would agree with him and send him on his way, explaining to whoever was threatening the entire planet that they had the wrong person, the wrong boy.  
"No, your not." The Doctor said simply. "You are a Time Lord of Gallifrey, named the Shadow."  
Daniel felt as if everything had crumbled. Here was a Doctor, The Doctor apparently, telling him that he was biologically not human and was from another planet. The worst thing was, when the Doctor mentioned the word Gallifrey, Daniel had felt something stir deep inside his hearts. The mere mention of the planet bringing out some deep pride.  
The Doctor had turned around by this point, walking quite swiftly out of the door of his laboratory, before turning and shouting out, "well come along then Shadow, i think it wise that we meet our adversaries and try to dissuade them from destroying the planet we have so rightly adopted." Before disappearing out of sight and up a flight of stairs.  
Jo, however, was still in the room.  
"You thought you were human?" She asked. Daniel nodded in response. All of a sudden Jo wrapped her arms around him. "It's going to be okay, you are going to be okay." She said.  
"But they said they would burn the planet for me, what does that make me Jo."  
She smiled at him then, a smile similar to that of which a mother would give to her child on the first day of school. A smile of pride and comfort, speaking volumes more than words could ever say.  
"Absolutely brilliant" She said to him, giving him a grin before grabbing his hand and dragging him upstairs at a break neck pace.

Ω

Jo and The Shadow broke outside of the Unit base to hear the Doctor say, "Now you listen to me" In a voice so authoritarian that it made him both happy that the Doctor was on their side and slightly scared abut the man.  
"It is you who shall listen to us, Doctor" The voice said, "The Shadow destroyed our planets, and we are here to exact our revenge"  
The Doctor looked over at The Shadow, considering him for a second, a small fire burning in his eyes that made the Gallifreyans hearts tremble.  
"I've destroyed planets" The Doctor said, his voice seeming to mourn the loss of the worlds, "and im sure I will destroy some more in the future." He continued.  
"What is your point Doctor?" The voice said.  
"Just because he has destroyed planets, that does not mean he is a bad person, so, i give you a chance. Leave now. Or i shall stop you." He said, his voice coming out in a snarl toward the end of his sentance.  
"Doctor!" Jo called out, a bright white light shimmering around The Shadow.  
"You see Doctor, we are already transmatting him aboard, there is nothing you can do to save him now." The alien above said, sounding smug as The Shadow dissapeared, leaving the Doctor and Jo alone in the courtyard.  
"Can't we save him?" Jo asked, her eyes scanning the Doctors face long and hard.  
"I am afraid not" The Doctor finally said, looking broken. "The TARDIS still does not work and by now they will surely be out of the Solar system, our friend is quite alone."  
The Doctor forced his hands deeply into his pockets, walking back toward the base.  
"Will he be okay?" Jo asked, falling into step beside him.  
The Doctor gave her a small smile before turning his eyes up on the sky, "Oh, i dare say i shall meet him again." The Doctor smiled slightly, "I am quite sure i will meet him again indeed." Smiling broader and walking into the UNIT facility.

Ω

"You will pay for what you have done, Shadow" A voice came from the Darkness before The Shadow.  
"I haven't done anything" He snarled in response.  
"Not yet you haven't, but soon you most definitely shall."  
"I don't understand" The Shadow implored, "How can you persecute me for something i have never done before.  
"Because" The voice said, "You have already done it in out time lines." It continued.  
At this point the owner of the voice stepped forward. The Shadow gasped loudly. The owner of the voice was slender and tall, standing at around six feet. His face seemed to have a similar make up to that of an insect, two large mandibles curving over a slit of a mouth, which in turn contained large sharp teeth. The creature wore a black robe like coat with four arms poking out of it, each containing a four fingered talon like hand that had the same exo skeletal coating to his face.  
"You're not Human" The Shadow breathed.  
The alien looked almost amused, clucking slightly in laughter. "Neither are you Shadow, its about time you realized that, although, you are about to Die, so it doesn't Really matter" It laughed again.  
"General," Came another voice from the darkness.  
"What is it Dretak?" The insectoid creature spat.  
"We have exited the sol system" The voice said.  
"Good, now i have no further use in you." The alien sneered, reaching into a pocket on his jacket.  
"What do you mean, General."  
"It means you are going to die, Dretak" he laughed, quickly whipping what looked like a pistol out of his jacket and firing it behind him. The cabin was illuminated momentarily, a bright light shining from the weapon and impacting on the figure behind him. Instantly engulfing the smaller creature in flame that seemed to consume him from the inside out. Dretak disappeared without a scream into dust.  
"You killed him" The Shadow gasped, a sob almost forcing its way out of him.  
"Yes" the General said quite simply.  
"But he was your co worker, your helper"  
"Yes" The general said once more.  
"Are you going to do the same to me? the Shadow asked.  
At this point the general gave the shadow an almost sympathetic smile, as if he was sorry about what was about to happen. "Yes" he said a final time, leveling his gun at the Shadow.  
The General fired his weapon, anticipating this, The shadow rolled to the side as soon as his finger twitched and was able to simply dodge the shot.  
"No" The Shadow said. "I don't want to die". He said, standing up, only coming to about chest height with the alien.  
"That's a shame" The alien mused, "You aren't the Shadow i have come to hate, he would have destroyed me now, but you hold not even an inkling of his power."  
The Alien snorted with laughter at the Shadows response as he drew his fists. One thing that The Shadow had learnt from being in an Orphanage all of his life where he was made fun of, how to protect himself against those bigger and stronger than was.  
The shadow Lashed out with a kick at the appendage that was holding the pistol. The general dropped the gun and let out a gasp of surprise. A look of fear crossed the Aliens eyes as The Shadow stooped down to pick up the fallen weapon.  
"No" The general whimpered. "Please don't kill me" It said, "I don't want to die."  
"Did you have listen to me,when i had asked not to be killed in fear of my life?" The Shadow asked ,a deep hatred toward the other creature burning in the pit of his stomach. "I don't know who i am right now, i don't know what is happening to me. But, you threatened an entire planet just to get to me. The planet i have called home all my life. Do you know what that means general?" The General shook his head. The Shadow pulled the trigger and the general erupted into flames before collapsing in on himself.  
The Shadow fell to his knees sobbing, the weight of what had happened collapsing in on him. That was where the Shadow blacked out, not noticing the other ship docking with the one he was on, not noticing the blonde woman picking him up and taking him away. Not noticing, quite yet, that his life had changed irrevocably forever.


	4. Chapter 3

"Where am I?" Daniel asked, gazing about the shadowy landscape that surrounded him.

_"You are within"_ A dark voice that seemed to come from everywhere and no where all at once.

"Within what?" Daniel asked with wide eyes, a feeling of dread quickly spreading through his hearts as if icicles had been speared directly into them.

A dark chuckle surrounded him. _"Oh how quaint, little Gallifreyan"_ the voice continued, _"You are within your own mind, all that is around you, a reflection of yourself."_

Daniel swallowed hard, trying not to freak out. All that surrounded him was himself. "So you as well" He intoned to the voice.

The laughing continued. _"Oh yes Daniel, including me."_

"You're the Shadow" Daniel exclaimed in realization. At the mention of the name the world around him began to pulse uncontrollably.

_"Oh very good Daniel, yes, I am that part of you. The Shadow."_ Before him the Darkness seemed to concentrate, to create a body at exactly the same height as him, that felt as if they were the same.

"You are me" Daniel said, his eyes full of wonder, awe and understanding.

_"Correct Daniel, we are one and the same." _The Shadowy figure nodded and Daniel felt a lot less afraid and much more safe, comforted even.

"Why haven't you shown yourself to me before now?" Daniel asked, his face screwed up slightly in confusion.

_"It took me until you were sixteen to Manifest. But now I am here, we can become one. You must just accept me" _

"How do I do that?"

_"Just open your mind and I will be there, waiting."_

Daniel nodded, slowly at first. "Are we evil?" The young Time Lord asked.

The Shadow chuckled again, shaking its head. _"No Daniel, we are not Evil. To our enemies, yes, but we are not evil in the grand scheme." _

"I don't know if I understand" Daniel sighed.

_"In Time Daniel, In time."_

The world around him suddenly flashed white.

"What was that?" Daniel asked, panicking

_"We seem to be waking up Shadow." _The Shadow said, using his own name to describe Daniel, which felt strangely okay to the young Time Lord.

"I still have more to ask" Daniel said, the world around him beginning to fade as he felt as if he was being pulled back into consciousness.

_"In Time Daniel, when you are ready, In time." _

Ω

River Song shook the boy again, trying desperately to get him to wake up. After finding the stolen ship just out of the Sol system, exactly as the Doctor said she would, she immediately docked to find the teenage boy passed out on the main deck, the disintegrated bodies of two aliens on the floor around him. As quickly as she could she picked the boy up, he was rather light for how old he was, and carried him through the Air Lock and into her own ship. They were half way to their destination when he had started shivering and calling out his name, The Shadow. Fearing for his life and the fact he could be having some form of fit, she tried to wake him.

The Shadow woke with a gasp that made him sound like he hadn't breathed in years. He immediately felt someone's hand on his arm.

"I'm River Song" A female voice said. He looked up into the direction of the voice and saw a curly haired blonde woman. "You must be the Shadow." She said and smiled knowingly.

"How Do you know me?" The Shadow asked, quickly scanning the room and seeing that it was a bedroom with barely any furniture in it.

"Oh, spoilers" The woman said, grinning in what seemed an almost flirtatious manner.

"What does that even mean?" The Shadow said, knitting his eyebrows together in frustration of the withheld information.

"You'll find out soon enough sweetie" River said, her smile growing, "You look ever so cute when you're angry."

The Shadow blushed a deep shade of red. Here was a woman who had taken him off of a spaceship in mid flight, put him in a bedroom and was now calling him cute. Not to mention she seemed to know more about himself than she did.

"Where are you taking me?" The Shadow asked cautiously, expecting to be met with another reply of 'spoilers'.

Rivers face turned serious for a second. "The Shadow Proclamation" She said, smiling slightly at the irony of the location.

"The Shadow Proclamation?" The Shadow asked, "Is it a coincidence they share my name?" he continued at River's silence.

"Spoilers," She said with a wink, turning and leaving him alone in the room.

Ω

The Shadow found his way into the cockpit of the shuttle with no problems at all. The ship was rather small and it hadn't taken long at all.

"I'm really in space" He breathed out, his eyes widening at the sight of stars and the inky blackness stretching out in front of him.

"The Final frontier" River joked, quoting the show 'star trek', but frowning a bit when The Shadow didn't seem to get her less than subtle reference.

"Is that them?" The Shadow asked, gesturing to a large space station that was quickly approaching them, "The Shadow Proclamation I mean?"

"I should think so" River said, grinning as a flashing orange light appeared on the front view screen of their ship.

"Mojo fro jo balarakasho" Came a gruff voice over the intercom, the shape of another alien appearing on the monitor.

"He looks like a Rhino" The Shadow gasped.

"Don't be rude" River chided, grinning at The Shadow's reaction, loving how early in his time line it was.

"But a Rhino" The Shadow shook his head slightly, trying to wrap his mind around it.

"Dialect assimilated, Origin: Earth. Language: English" The on screen Rhino said.

"Hallo" River grinned at the Rhino, "We're here to see the Shadow Architect" River informed him.

"Is there a pre existing appointment" The Rhino creature asked.

"No, but, I have a mission from the Doctor." She explained.

The Shadow looked to her immediately, recognising the name without question. River grinned even wider, if that was possible, at The Shadow, almost wanting to burst out laughing at the Time Lords reaction to her husband's name.

"The Judoon have granted you access to the Shadow Proclamation." The creature, who had described himself as Judoon, stated. The transmission ended and a bright beam of light latched onto the shuttle, shutting off the engines and pulling them toward the station.

"So the Doctor sent you?" The Shadow asked.

"Spoilers" River answered with a wink before the pair were pulled inside the station.

Ω

In the Docking bay of the station a large number of aliens milled around, and as they were pulled along by the tractor beam The Shadow got to observe them all. There were small aliens, tall aliens. Green, red and blue aliens. Aliens with two heads and other ones with none at all. One even had a pet dog with no nose. Eventually, after passing over at least a dozen other ships with different manner of designs, shapes and sizes they were set down. Outside of their craft a Judoon in armour was waiting for them.

"You will follow me" The Judoon said as the Shadow and River disembarked from their shuttle craft. River stayed silent but bowed her head respectfully, giving The Shadow an indication that he should do the same. The Shadow complied, he was in outer space in an area surrounded by aliens that may or may not turn hostile and after the events of the last twenty four hours, he didn't want to meet anymore hostile aliens just yet.

The Judoon clomped forward at an increasingly fast pace. He was single minded and determined to take them straight to their location, which the Shadow assumed would be the chamber of the Shadow Architect. Passing through corridors, past interrogation rooms and holding cells the Shadow could immediately tell what the Shadow Proclamation was and what the Judoons place in the organization was. The Proclamation were intergalactic police, and the Judoon their officers. What better policing force than a species of bipedal, seven foot tall rhinos.

Eventually The Shadow was forced to stop his musing on Judoon and the Proclamation as they had arrived at their location.

"The Architect will see you now" The Judoon said, gesturing to the large, metal doors in front of them River and the Shadow gave the Judoon another respectful bow before turning to the door.

"Do not say a word unless she asks you to." River said, glancing over to the Shadow, "that much is vitally important." She said, stressing her point.

"I understand" The Shadow said, giving her a small nod and a nervous smile, which she returned.

River and The Shadow walked through the doors together. In front of them was a long table with different shaped seats for different species lining the sides. At the very head of the table sat the shadow architect. She was pale white and old looking, her hair white and face slightly wrinkled. She wore a black dress and black necklace, her eyes burned red.

"The infamous River Song" The Shadow Architect said, her voice holding an almost deep loathing, "why don't you and your companion take some seats."

"Yes Shadow Architect" she said respectfully, giving a short bow of her head and sitting, which the Shadow immediately copied.

"You said you have a mission from The Doctor" The Shadow Architect inquired, razing one of her thin eyebrows.

"He sends me with a message, and a request." River said simply.

"And what is this message?" The Shadow Architect said, leaning forward slightly in interest.

"The Shadow rises." River said passively, not revealing any emotions but instead sitting with a hard, stoic expression on her face.

The Shadow Architect looked surprised. "He said this?" River only nodded. "Our lord has returned" The Architect breathed in wonder.

"No" River said, trying to diffuse the situation. "You misunderstand, he rises for the first time." River explained.

"But how can this be?" The Architect asked.

"Time Travel" River said simply. The Architect nodded slowly, digesting the information.

"You spoke of a request?"

"A vortex manipulator" River said.

"Why would the Doctor need one of those?" The Architect exclaimed.

"For The Shadow of course." River said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The Architect seemed to consider it for a moment and the room was left in an awkward silence.

"Very well" The Architect eventually relented, "you may have what you have asked for."

Ω

The two walked into their shuttle, the Judoon escort having walked them back to the ship. As the shuttle's air lock closed River exclaimed a large sigh.

"Well that was close" She laughed, " If she had found out that you were The Shadow, god knows what it would have done to the time lines."

"I'm their lord?" The Shadow asked, "How?"

"Spoilers" river laughed again.

"I'm really starting to hate that word." The Shadow groaned.

"You're going to need this."River said, handing him the Vortex Manipulator.

"What is it?" The Shadow asked, looking down at the large wristband.

"A Vortex Manipulator, VM for short" River said proudly. "It allows you to travel in space and time." She clarified.

The Shadows jaw literally dropped as he looked down at the piece of technology in his hands. Aliens and Space travel he could just about handle, he was even getting over the fact he wasn't strictly human, but time travel, that was a whole new ball park of weird.

"What am I meant to do with it?" The Shadow asked, slipping his arm into the wristband and strapping it closed.

"Travel the universe, save planets, blow a few up" She said with a chuckle and a wink. "It's what you were born to do." She said smiling and giving his cheek a gentle stroke.

"How do I use it?" He asked.

"Well" River said cheekily, "Like this" She said, grabbing his arm and quickly punching something in on a key pad that had appeared. "See you around" She said grinning, pushing her finger down on a red button.

"No wait!" The Shadow exclaimed, the area around him already fading to white.

Ω


	5. Chapter 4

The bright light Diminished slowly from the shadows vision. It's harsh intensity slowly dissipating from his vision. He stumbled slightly, bending over into a harsh coughing fit, a pounding in his head like he had never experienced before. A low groan escaped his lips, the sound expected only from a wounded animal. Then as quickly as the pain arose, it was gone. The Shadow whipped his head up and glanced around, taking in his surroundings. What he saw amazed him. To his right was a large cathedral, it's spires stretching upward into a bright blue sky, it's brick work laced with gold, blue, red and chrome. Creating a beautiful depiction of a goddess on one spire and a god on the other, though which religion had such gods and goddesses were unknown to The Shadow. On the opposite side of the grand cathedral a large market sprawled outward. A large array of species that The Shadow had never seen before. Some had three arms, others two heads, eyes coming out of the tops of their heads on long antennae and some with no heads at all. The stalls themselves were all very different from one another, some were little more than a rag on the floor with a few nondescript items on them, whereas others seemed to be fully established shops and seemed as grand as the cathedral when compared to their rag counterparts.

The Shadow stepped toward the market. He was unsure why the mysterious River Song had sent him to this destination, but, he presumed that there was some reasoning or importance behind it and she hadn't just punched a load of random numbers into the dial out on his new VM. At that thought the young time lord looked down at his arm, the device sitting there quite easily. The thing looked rather simple to use, a key pad to type in coordinates and a red button to activate the transport system. However, in big red letters on the devices readout the words 'cool down' continuously flashed, underneath that a count down timer of an hour. He shrugged and pushed his hands into the pockets of his worn jeans, the leather jacket folding stylishly around his wrists. He set off toward the market without a purpose, but instead just to observe and look around.

The stalls around him sold a whole manner of things, and quite soon, The Shadow found himself lost in a never ending labyrinth of stalls, shops, knick naks and confectionery. The megalithic structure of the cathedral had long since disappeared behind tents, crumbling buildings and the hundreds of thousands of heads from multiple different species. There would be absolutely no way for The Shadow to find his way back to the cathedral. No matter how hard he tried. Eventually, one of the crumbling buildings seemed to stand out to The Shadow like a sore thumb. It's crumbling architecture was the same as the countless buildings he had spied before it, but, in this case the symbols on a sign that hung from a tattered banner seemed to call out to him and draw him in. The banner depicted words that looked almost Chinese in their origin, as had many other of the buildings signs portrayed, but this one had the picture of a beetle with a pyramid and an eye on its back. The picture called out to him in a way that connected deeply with his hearts, a strange click that he couldn't quite explain.

As he stepped over the threshold of the building and into a small, cramped room the smell of incense immediately washed over him. The heavy air carrying a musk and weight to it that was very different to the smell of alien bodies outside the shop. A small, human looking woman rushed toward him. The skin around her eyes were crinkled and her hands withered with old age.  
"welcome to the sisterhood," the woman croaked out, "we can tell you of your future, your past and your struggles" she continued. The Shadow felt one of his eye brows raise on a subconscious thought, thinking that there was no way a random woman from an intergalactic market place could depict anything from the tangled mess of a life that his had become.  
"What will it cost me?" The Shadow inquired, quite aware that he had no money with him. The woman seemed to eye him for a second, like some form of predator eying a smaller animal before it pounced.  
"For you, is free." The psychic said, stepping to one side and indicating a seat set beside a table that had a deck of tarot cards atop it. The Shadow deliberated for a second, wondering if it were wise to take a free reading, if by some way this old women intended to harm him by it. But then, Tarot cards were a mere party trick, their only influence being through mere coincidence. He breezed past the woman, sitting down on the chair and allowing the woman to sit opposite him.

"You must shuffle the cards" the woman said, pushing the deck toward him slightly. The Shadow picked the cards up, immediately sifting through them with what looked like practiced ease, shuffling the deck for half a minute at most.  
"Now spread them, face down" the woman instructing, indicating the deck and then the table. The Shadow obliged, spreading them face down over the width of the table.  
"Now choose the card that calls to you, this card shall reveal your past. Take it and place it down to your left" the woman instructed further. The shadow let his hand drift lazily above the cards, his hand eventually settling over one near to the middle of the pack. He placed it down the way she had told him.  
"now a second, this shall represent your present" she said, waiting for him patiently. The Shadows hand once again began its lazy drift over the cards, eventually settling on the dead centre card. He placed it in front of him.  
"and finally, the card of the future" the woman said, her tone coming off as eerily mysterious. Almost magnetically, the shadows hand reached for a card on the far right, almost as if the appendage had free thought and did not listen to the way he wanted it to function. He place the card to his right. The woman gathered the remaining cards and brought them toward her.  
"It is done," the woman began, " you may now flip your first card" The Shadow did just that.  
"The Devil" the woman muttered, observing the dark beast that lay before them. "A mockery of wisdom, a dark power has consumed you from within, taken control of you, become you." she said, almost sounding wary of her choices in speech. The Shadows memory immediately turned to the night everything changed, the void energy and the manifestation of the being he had become.  
"now the card of the present" the woman said, almost as if she was hurrying him. He flipped the card and she nodded slowly.  
"the hanged man, the paradox card" she said, the card displaying the God Odin, hanging upside down to acquire wisdom. "there are great questions to be asked, and even greater answers to be received, but both question and knowledge already resides within," she said cryptically, "the final card, the future."

The Shadows hand lingered for a second at the edge of the card. Thus far it seemed that the cards were directly meant for him, in ways that the old woman opposite could not even begin to imagine. The devil, signifying his void energy. The hanged man, depicting his internal questions. What the final card had to hold worried him. Could these cards truly predict his future?.  
"the world card," the woman said as soon as his hand withdrew. "you shall die to only be born again, your problems will have been surmounted, but, in your new life, new problems shall arise and these tests will also have to be passed. As the cards predict."

The Shadow felt a chill pass over his body. Somehow he knew that what the card had revealed to them was true. By some miracle, when he died he would change, regenerate, be reborn in a new and healed body. Perhaps it was the void, perhaps it would be to do with his time lord heritage. He knew in his hearts that the cards sung true. The air began to feel heavier and The Shadow was finding it harder to breathe. His vision swam at the corners and the feeling of bile was rising up through his chest. He needed to get out. He stood quickly, the chair he had occupied skittering across the floor, splintering into pieces as it hit the wall. The Shadow ran. Bursting out of the door in a flurry of movement and sound. He breathed in the market air, the freshness of it cleansing his senses immediately, yet, there was something else. A niggling sensation at the back of his mind, something burrowing into the back of his skull and turning himself inside out. He let out a long and lasting moan of pain and then silently fell forward.

Daniel woke with a start. Fragments of a dream in a large market place on a distant world fleeting from his memory. He stretched and threw the duvet off of himself, twisting his back as he did so, it responding with a satisfying array of cracks. From downstairs, Daniel could just make out the faint chords of music coming from downstairs. The faint sounds of his birthday morning. Daniel crept down the stairs as silently as he could, his socked feet barely making a sound in the carpeted hallway. It was an old tradition of his that he try to sneak up on his family on the morning of his birthday. It had started when he was two, the sneaking nature that Daniel only got on his birthday, and at the age of 16 it still had not faded. So, with much skill and trepidation, Daniel gently set the door of his kitchen ajar, slipping through it, unbeknownst to his mother and father. The sixteen year old practically glided across the kitchen floor, the slight sound he had been making masked by the Beatles blasting out of their radio. He crept up behind his mother with ease and gently jabbed her around her kidney area. She let out a yelp of surprise, dropping the fork full of bacon she was just about to eat back onto her plate. She turned around, knowing it would be Daniel by the sniggering of her husband along with Daniels laughs. His father shut off the radio with a grin.

"happy birthday Daniel," his dad said, patting him heavily on the back.  
His mum embraced him in a warm hug, Daniel breathed in her scent, feeling an essence of wrongness emanating from her, like she wasn't meant to be there, like for some reason she wasn't right. It made his heart stop dead in his chest. He backed away from his mother smiling, however, there was a deep queasiness in his stomach.  
"I'm just gonna go to the toilet," he said, bouncing nervously on the balls of his feet and backing off, "then we can start on my present, right?"  
"Anything you want hon," his mum said, Daniel gave her a large grin and turned, dashing off quickly, trying to fight off the waves of dizziness that were ricocheting around his skull . By the time he got up the stairs and into the bath room he was ready to puke.  
"Wake up Daniel," came a strange voice from seemingly everywhere, and no where, "you have to wake up."  
Daniel turned on the spot, the space in the toilet room not enough to allow him true movement. "Who are you?" he choked out, fear settling deep inside himself.  
"Your sleeping Daniel," the voice said. At those words his vision flashed a great white light, a piercing pain striking through his head, "and you have to wake up now."  
"I don't understand," He cried out.  
Daniel gasped his head and clutched it in pain, being forced to his knees by what felt like a grand pressure.  
"Wake up," the voice snarled again, causing the entire room around him to seemingly bend outward and then flex back in again, like a piece of plastic that had been pulled back at the edges.  
Daniel cried out, curling into a ball, the world seeming to stretch and bend around him, at the corners of his vision dark tendrils of smoke leaking through.  
"WAKE UP," it came the last time.

The Shadow opened his eyes and drew in a sharp gasp of air, as if he had'nt breathed in a long time and that was his first opertunity. He noticed that he was back in the tarot shop, but, instead of being inside the main room, he was instead inside a little chamber. The young Time Lord stood, stretching the cricks from his back and chasing the tiredness away from his fatigued body. He looked around the small room he was in, dark and dusty, very small with a large wooden door in one of them. On the ground by his feet was the dying form of a very large beetle. The Shadow shook his head hard, blinking the remnants of the dream world from his head. The family he should have never have encountered. A small ember of rage built up in his head, slowly transforming into black tendrils leaking from his finger tips. He directed the anger at the door, the wood slowly buckling and changing under his gaze, until it eventually disintegrated into a pile of splinters on the floor.  
The Shadow walked out of the door, immediately entering the shop proper. Only one table was in use, the old woman that had done the Tarot reading on him sitting opposite a pretty ginger woman, on her back, another one of the beetle creatures.  
"Let her go" The Shadow snarled, the inky black wisps still gently rolling from his finger tips. The womans eyes widened, fear flitting across her face.  
"What are you," she whimpered out.  
"Your worst nightmare," the Shadow snarled back at her.  
He raised his hands, ready to unleash a torrent of his void energy at her. A gasp stopped him. The ginger womans eyes opened wide, for a split second a little hint of golden light traceable on her eyes, before it faded. She let out a little groan, shaking her head. The old womans eyes opened wider.  
"What will you become," the woman said, before standing and running from the room.  
At that moment a tall, lanky man walked through the doors of the shop. He was dressed in a brown trench coat, underneath which he wore a suit, on his feet were a pair of red converse.  
"Doctor," The ginger woman said, embracing the man in a hug.  
"Woah, whats wrong," he said, hugging her back, an amused grin on his face.  
"There was this thing, and, you were dead," she said, pointing to the dead bug on the floor.  
He put on a pair of heavy rimmed glasses and bent over the bug, still not even noticing The Shadow.  
"Doctor?" The Shadow, taking a step forward, "You've changed," he said.  
The Doctors body stilled completely for a second, before slowly turning around, his eyes wide with shock.  
"The Shadow," he breathed out, remembering the time they encountered in his third regeneration, and the one time he thought that they had met in his ninth. "But thats impossible." He said, taking a step toward the boy.


End file.
